October 22, 2015

Headline at Buzzfeed. I listened to part of the embedded video, stopping shortly after the lyric "We all are important/We all are OK..." made me think too much. I read some of the comments, which I sorted according to "best." After wading through some discussion of whether the headline should have said "character with autism" instead of "autistic character," I got to some criticism of "Sesame Street" for working with an organization called Autism Speaks:

As an autistic person I hate that they worked with Autism Speaks. We autistic people can speak for ourselves, we don't need an organization without even one autistic person on the board speaking for us. While Sesame Street's heart is in the right place they're going about this all wrong and I wish I could help them fix it. Have a bunch of actual autistic people provide input on the character, not just the parents of autistic people. Only we can fully express what's in our heads.

There's also criticism of "Sesame Street" for making the character a girl when boys are much more likely to be autistic. One answer is: "It is exactly so they can break the stereotype." But, somebody says, that's "marginalizing boys with autism." Somebody else says having a girl exemplify autism is like have a male breast cancer spokesperson.

"Why can't it be they wanted an autistic character so they created an autistic character? Why does she have to be created with the purpose of fighting the stigma?"

That's a rhetorical question of course. Sesame Street isn't about entertainment. It's about using government subsidies to make giant piles of cash from a commercial media enterprise targeted at the good intentions of parents and our most vulnerable citizens.

Are they really saying that 4 year olds have the potential to be bullies, and they have to stop this with a new character? I thought that all children are naturally open-minded and it's just that adults poison them as the grow older.

I agree that to make this character a girl seems to almost deliberately try to avoid the issue, and I assume that they're going to make her "autistic-ness" relatively nonthreatening. She won't scream or moan, she'll just flap her hands or maybe just incessantly talk about bugs.

In any case, that "theme song" sounded awful -- and hearing "everyone is amazing in their own way" as a 4 year old isn't going to make a difference in what that kid does at the age of 8 or 10 or 12 if there's an autistic kid mainstreamed into their classroom, in the same way as the "DARE" program for preteens had no impact on decisions 5 or 10 years down the road.

"That's a rhetorical question of course. Sesame Street isn't about entertainment. It's about using government subsidies to make giant piles of cash from a commercial media enterprise targeted at the good intentions of parents and our most vulnerable citizens."

True, and there is certainly more propaganda to the show now than I recall in the seventies. But, as a 4 year old I enjoyed it. One two three four five six seven eight nine ten eleven TWEEEEEEEEEEELLVE!

"My sister's boy has autism. He's not much into social interaction. Is this new character going to be sitting in a corner while the other muppets do stuff?"

Our neighbors have a son diagnosed with autism. He does not, however have the anti-social component. I told his parents that they were very lucky, since that's the most difficult issue to deal with. (My brother is on the autism spectrum and has had problems with social situations.)

Boys are almost five times as likely as girls to have Autism Spectrum Disorder ("ASD"), so of course they made the character a girl. Because Grrrrl Power.

http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/data.html

One of the (many) problems in helping kids with ASD is that it's been defined so broadly, and now incorporates other formerly seperate diagnoses, that it's almost useless as a descriptor. It covers everything from the totally non-verbal kid rocking himself in the corner, to the highly verbal and energietic kid who makes faux pas because he just can't properly read verbal and visual social cues (the latter would have probably been called Asperger's in the past).

There shouldn't even be Sesame Street, or any children's "educational" TV. It doesn't teach them much at all, except for bad grammar and bad manners ("Me want cookie!") and a few words of Spanish. Sesame teaches how to count to ten, or whatever, and the alphabet, but every kid learns those things anyway. Everyone under 50 in the US knows "abierto", and "cerrado" from the show, but how many actually learn a foreign language? It mostly wastes their time while "entertaining" them, time that should be spent with A PARENT or two, with someone who engages them, plays with them, and READS TO THEM.

I actually love that song as well. Musically and lyrically it's got monster hooks, it's got Gospel elements in it, and it's a very clean sounding song. And it's compelling because it reflects the singer-songwriter's heartfelt sentiment, which incidentally I'm on the same page with.

If your precious snowflake is a bully, it is usually a learned behavior at home. And SJW are notorious bullies.

And, of course, if one's own child stands up to bullies in the only way that makes a difference (this includes kids standing up for their tormented friends), they will get a visit to the principal's office, a reprimand and a referral to the District Counselor and a BOLO letter in their permanent file.

There's also criticism of "Sesame Street" for making the character a girl when boys are much more likely to be autistic. One answer is: "It is exactly so they can break the stereotype." But, somebody says, that's "marginalizing boys with autism." Somebody else says having a girl exemplify autism is like have a male breast cancer spokesperson.

And this is exactly why "representation" is doomed to fail, and this will only ever be an obvious token. (Which is not actually a huge deal, since it's a token muppet, rather than a real human being who has a position only because of their Status As A Token Whatever, mind you.)

We don't need a muppet for every "group"; thinking we do leads to nobody caring about any of them, because we'll have hundreds, each of which is simply a transparent representative of A Group.

'There's also criticism of "Sesame Street" for making the character a girl when boys are much more likely to be autistic. One answer is: "It is exactly so they can break the stereotype." But, somebody says, that's "marginalizing boys with autism." Somebody else says having a girl exemplify autism is like have a male breast cancer spokesperson.'

Letting the perfect be the enemy of the good. Social justice bullshit could only ever go in this direction. Who's the victimiest victim? Gotta get to the root of that question. For justice. As if the universe (which is throwing a good-sized chunk of rock at us out of left field next weekend) gives a fuck.